0475-A3
Uwem E. Ite 1
Using a case study from southeast Nigeria, this paper rejects the widely held view of the irrational behaviour of small farmers in relation to agricultural land-use decisions and the resulting loss of tropical moist forest (TMF). It argues that the relatively modest rate of TMF loss in the study area can be explained to a large extent by the active role of well-established local institutional arrangements for forest management backed by sound utilization of indigenous agro-ecological knowledge by households. The paper concludes that indigenous knowledge/practices and local institutions complement each other. It shows that local knowledge and associated practices are both evolving yet breaking down at the same time. However contradictory this may seem, the best foundation for identifying improvements to institutions and policies necessary for sustainable forest management lies in further and better understanding of the contextual causes of forest loss from the local (household) perspective. Harmony between people and forests requires global and national forest managers to learn from local resource users by collectively challenging the prevailing received wisdom and negative views on the structural dynamism, policy relevance and scientific validity of local knowledge and local institutions in forest resource management.
Rural communities in developing countries possess highly developed awareness of their environment and rational forms of land management (Amanor 1994). Although the literature on common property regimes in sub-Saharan Africa often suggests that institutional arrangements are declining, it has been demonstrated that some of these arrangements are much more resilient and flexible than commonly assumed (Dunn 1997; Freudenberger et al. 1997). Despite the existence of romantic views about small farmers' indigenous knowledge and the economic and ecological sustainability resulting from the use of such knowledge (Wiersum 1997), there is no doubt that indigenous agro-ecological knowledge and practices can have deleterious implications for tropical moist forest (TMF) environments. It is clear that existing international and national responses to environmental problems in TMF areas of West Africa have arisen out of inadequate understanding of specific processes of degradation (Amanor 1994). There is also evidence of inadequate knowledge of the interactions between human population, society and natural systems as well as the ecological interactions of the diverse species in TMF ecosystems.
This paper seeks to demonstrate that the relatively modest rate of TMF loss around the Cross River National Park, Nigeria (Figure 1) can be explained, to a large extent, by the interaction of local institutional arrangements for forest management and indigenous agro-ecological knowledge. The role of local institutions in forest management is examined within the wider context of the land tenure system, traditional political structure and administration as well as village social and economic structures. The utility of indigenous agro-ecological knowledge manifests itself in the length of fallow periods, forest clearance techniques and strategies for soil fertility maintenance adopted by households in the study area. It is acknowledged that within the context of forest land-use, households' application of indigenous agro-ecological knowledge is a two-edged sword, since the resulting practices can improve local livelihoods but destroy forests according to current ecological views.
A variety of field techniques were employed in the course of the research for this paper. Maps and aerial photographs were used to determine the extent and rates of forest loss specifically in the study area. Detailed questionnaire surveys of 160 households were conducted in three forest-dependent villages (Figure 1). Archival and documentary sources were also consulted to provide new and/or confirm existing data and information. Focus group discussions and use of structured and informal interview techniques provided more in-depth and qualitative information within and outside the study villages. Participatory observations were also made by taking part in local groups' and households' forest-based (e.g. agriculture), and non-forest activities (e.g. attending community meetings on forest boundary disputes). Groups of villagers participated in drawing of resource maps with a view to seeking collective explanations on the trends and patterns of forest loss and the role of local (household and community) knowledge and practices in enhancing or checking such losses.
Each household in the study area is an individual decision-making unit capable of choosing a form or forms of household income generation strategy to fulfil some objective function and livelihood strategy. These functions varied according to the social, political and economic circumstances of the household, and affected the ways in which the household viewed the array of income opportunities. It was evident that each household had at its disposal both physical and human resources (e.g. land, labour, equipment, education, ethnicity, and extended families), and these were used to determine the income opportunities open to the household. The income opportunities existed in both farm and off-farm activities (e.g. trade and remittances, wage labour, artisanal production), with no significant implications for deterioration or loss of environmental quality. Each of the income opportunities had an 'access qualification', and could only be taken up by households which possess access to the necessary qualifications (e.g. labour, land, capital and equipment) and the social networks necessary to mobilise them.
The findings of the study demonstrated that despite the variety of livelihood strategies available to households in the study area, the integration of trees in homestead farms constitutes one possibility for maximising household income. It also showed that households' decision to integrate trees in farms constituted responses to complex immediate (local) and wider (national and regional) social, political and economic circumstances. These included household agricultural resource base (i.e. farm holdings and size, labour force and capital equipment), awareness of the availability of markets for the products of trees planted in homestead farms, perceptions of social tastes and the ability to readily respond to social preferences.
The Cross River National Park in southeast Nigeria was established in 1991 to conserve one of the best remaining TMF areas in Nigeria. Recent research (Ite, 2001) highlighted the role of small farmers in the loss of TMF in the area. Approximately three-quarters (76%) of the Okwangwo Division (with a total area of 1,000 km2) are covered by mature tropical forest. Using data from sequential aerial photographs and field surveys in the area, Ite and Adams (1998) derived an estimated TMF loss of 0.6% per annum during a period of 26 years (i.e. 1967-1993). This rate was considered to be relatively modest. However, the assumptions of very rapid rates of forest conversion by the local communities became the basis for TMF conservation initiatives implemented in the study area (Environment and Development Group, 1998). This raises two important issues. Firstly, the rate of conversion is slower than might be feared when compared with other parts of Nigeria. Secondly, there has been no clear definition and agreement of what constitutes rapid rates of forest conversion for the study area.
The role of local institutions in the management and exploitation of TMF by forest-dependent communities in southeast Nigeria can be examined from three main perspectives.
Firstly, land tenure in Nigeria involves sets of rules and regulations for managing natural resources and the environment. Each community in the study area has rights to the forest area surrounding the villages. The protected community forests constitute the main source of land for farming, and are mostly communally owned. Members of the community have the right to clear as much land as they desire for the purposes of farming. However, in communities with an inadequate supply of forest areas the community land is shared out to families/households. In all cases, the ownership of the land by individuals is normally derived from initial clearances of portions of the community forest. Therefore a mixture of communal and individual ownership of land is found in the survey village communities. Data collected showed that two-thirds (63%) of farm plots owned by households in the study area were obtained through initial clearance of portions of the community forests (by the respective households). Immigrants are required to rent land from the community or individuals for temporary use and are therefore not entitled to permanent ownership.
Secondly, political powers in the study area are traditionally exercised in distinct hierarchical stages. The village is the most significant unit for the organisation of economic, social and religious life. Community laws govern inheritance, land tenure, government hierarchy, lines of authority and respect, marriage and kinship, property rights and spiritual laws. All these significantly influence the general behaviour of both community and individuals. However, due to both former colonial and modern pressures, local culture, traditions and social mores are undergoing significant changes. Available evidence suggest that long established social structures and lines of authority are in the process of breaking down while some are clearly no longer relevant.
Thirdly, village development committees constitute elements of political organisation and administration. Such committees are responsible for education, health, markets, village land use and allocation. One or more sub-committees regulate the exploitation of natural resources in the villages. Indigenes of the village have full rights to forest use based on well-established principles. Non-indigenes intending to exploit community forest for timber and other forest products are required to negotiate the terms and agree on the conditions with the Village Head or Chief as well as with the appropriate village sub-committee(s).
In spite of the existence of the above institutions in the study area, the planners of the Cross River National Park project failed to learn and incorporate ideas from these local institutions into the management plan for the park. As Caldecott (1996, p.57) admitted retrospectively, there was:
` ... a lack of specific and relevant experience among all the groups and most of the individuals involved in planning the project. The group with most relevant experience in fact probably comprised the local people in the project area, who had been many times exposed to government plans and projects affecting the forests and lands which they regard as their own. This was not fully reflected in either the consultation or the planning process that defined the project'.
The result was that the Park Project enjoyed significant support from international environmental organisations and development agencies, but failed to fully gain and consolidate considerable support at the local level within Nigeria.
Households in the study area have utilised their indigenous agro-ecological knowledge within the farming system. This is reflected in the fallow periods, vegetation clearance techniques and farm systems. The result has been the emergence of four main farming systems, namely homestead/compound, cassava, banana/plantains and cocoa farms. The indigenous agro-ecological knowledge has also been useful in maintaining soil fertility levels. Traditional farming in the study area is based on maintaining a bush fallow system around the village. The forest clearance system for cultivation can be characterised as the 'cut, burn, and plant' method. Some tree species are usually left in the farms during land preparation for cultivation, as reported by four-fifths (86%) of the respondents. Nearly all the respondents (97%) considered the trees to be economically significant either in the short or long-term. The trees also constitute important sources of building materials for domestic use as well as providing shade and protection for certain crops (e.g. banana and plantain) from wind damage. The percentage of farmers practising clear felling of farm plots is relatively small. This clearly demonstrates the role and utility of indigenous agro-ecological knowledge in the management of forest and agricultural land in the study area. It also provides further evidence that the notions of indiscriminate felling of trees by farmers in sub-Saharan African are sometimes false, pessimistic and highly exaggerated (Holmgren 1994).
The research findings suggested that there are no significant differences between households with respect to their knowledge of the important role of soils in agricultural land use. When asked whether some soil type are capable of keeping crops longer than others, the majority of the respondents (74%) of the household survey answered in the affirmative. The knowledge of the different soil types and their potential value has been used by farmers in determining which area of the community forest to clear for farming and what types of crops to be cultivated.
This paper rejects the widely held view of the irrational behaviour of small farmers in relation to agricultural land use decisions and the resulting TMF loss. Given the experience reported in this paper, there are two main implications.
First, there is a need for further and better understanding of the contextual causes of TMF loss. This would have to be derived from the perspective of households and not based on current received or conventional wisdom on the subject under review. It is evident that current explanations of the role of small farmers in TMF loss have failed to recognise that smallholder agriculture, agroforestry and pastoral systems can be ecologically sustainable.
In addition, there needs to be a consensus that most smallholders are rational in the decision-making process and that they possess adaptive behaviour and skills, based on their understanding of the local environment. Very often, arguments about the destructive influence of small farmers often underestimate the significant role of external factors in the internal (household) organisation of resource management. These include government policies, class position and land tenure. Yet these factors play significant roles in influencing household decision-making concerning land use and the management of the forest environment.
In view of the above, present global generalisations of the relationship between population growth and forest loss have very limited value, especially for understanding local (household) processes of forest loss. Furthermore, in some places it may be readily obvious that global demand for timber drives forest loss, while in other geographical locations population growth may be the major factor. Clearly, TMF loss has no simple single cause and the role of smallholder farmers varies considerably from place to place and over time.
Second, research evidence on local practices (based on households' application of indigenous agro-ecological knowledge) should be considered as the cornerstone for TMF conservation planning and subsequent implementation. Small farmers view TMF environments as the source of livelihoods for present and future generations. In other words, the small farmers in TMF environments are indeed conservationists. Except in extreme circumstances or accidentally, they do not deliberately cause permanent degradation of soils. Therefore, in designing TMF conservation projects and policies, there is a need to incorporate and build on the knowledge of small farmers concerning their environment, as well as their practices in relation to the sustainable use of the environment. Such knowledge can only be garnered through a micro-level study, with individual farming units (households) as the focus of the analysis. Current and future TMF conservation initiatives in developing countries are more likely to succeed and to achieve their goals if global and national TMF resource managers learn to understand and utilise the indigenous agro-ecological knowledge of local TMF resource users. New thinking in forestry practice and research should proceed by, and focus on, learning from the resource users, instead of working on generalised and untested assumptions about their behaviour, preferences, choices and practices regarding forest land use.
Indigenous knowledge and local institutions significantly influence environmental (e.g. forest) degradation and management in developing countries. Although the knowledge possessed by rural communities is frequently treated as static, emerging research evidence clearly demonstrates its structural dynamism, policy relevance and scientific validity. Nonetheless, in some communities, the effectiveness and relevance of local institutional arrangements for resource management are gradually undermined by internal and external factors. The evidence in this paper has demonstrated that indigenous knowledge/practices and local institutions complement each other. It is clear that local knowledge and associated practices are both evolving yet breaking down at the same time. However contradictory this may seem, the best foundation for identifying improvements to institutions and policies necessary for sustainable forest management lies in further and better understanding of the contextual causes of forest loss from the local (household) perspective. Harmony between people and forests requires global and national forest managers to learn from local resource users by collectively challenging the prevailing received wisdom and negative views on the structural dynamism, policy relevance and scientific validity of local knowledge and local institutions in forest resource management.
Amanor, K.S., 1994. Ecological knowledge and the regional economy: environmental management in the Asesewa District of Ghana. Development and Change 25, 41-67.
Caldecott, J. 1996. Designing Conservation Projects, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dunn, J.E. 1997. Responding to pressure on local natural resources: the story of three villages in south-eastern Nigeria. Journal of Environmental Management 51, 361-371.
Environment and Development Group. 1998. The Federal Republic of Nigeria: Mid Term Review of the Okwangwo Programme. Draft Report, May 1998. Oxford: EDG.
Freudenberger, M.S., Carney, J.A. and Lebbie, A.R. 1997. Resiliency and change in common property regimes in West Africa: the case of the Tongo in the Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Society and Natural Resources 10: 383-402.
Holmgren, P., Masakha, E.J. and Sjoholm, H. 1994. Not all African land is being degraded: a recent survey of trees on farms in Kenya reveals rapidly increasing forest resources. Ambio 23(7), 390-395.
Ite, U.E. 2001. Global Thinking and Local Action: Agriculture and Tropical Forest Conservation in Southeast Nigeria, Ashgate Publishers, Aldershot.
Ite, U.E. and Adams, W.M. 1998. Forest conversion, conservation and forestry in Cross River State, Nigeria. Applied Geography 18(4), 301-314.
Wiersum, K.F. 1997. Indigenous exploitation and management of tropical forest resources: an evolutionary continuum in forest-people interactions. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 63, 1-16.
1 Environment and Development Group, Department of Geography, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YB, UK. [email protected]